Doctors should shake hands, smile and use a person's first name when greeting a patient for the first time, according to new research. The study shows most patients want to shake hands when they first meet a doctor and just over half would like to be greeted by their first name.
The study, published today in the Archives of Internal Medicine, found that 78 per cent of those surveyed wanted doctors to shake their hands while 50.4 per cent wanted their first name used during a consultation.
When asked should doctors introduce themselves using their first name only, their last name or both, some 56 per cent said they would like physicians to introduce themselves using first and last names. Almost one-third of the 415 people surveyed across the US wanted doctors to use their (the doctor's) last name only, with just 7 per cent preferring a doctor to use his first name only.
The pattern of preferences was consistent for males and females, across different educational levels and for all ethnic groups.
The researchers from the Northwestern University School of Medicine in Chicago also analysed 123 videotapes of new patient visits to primary care physicians in Chicago and in Burlington, Vermont.
This showed that doctors and patients shook hands in eight out of 10 consultations. But in 50 per cent of the encounters, doctors did not mention patient names at all. Physicians used their first and last name when introducing themselves 58 per cent of the time.
Doctors and medical students are typically taught to shake hands with the patient, address the patient by name and to introduce themselves. Until now, however, there has been little detailed study of what patients consider an appropriate greeting.
"The first few moments of a medical encounter are critical to establishing rapport, making the patient feel comfortable and setting the tone for the interview," Dr Gregory Makoul and his colleagues note.
Commenting on the findings that older patients were less likely than younger patients to want a physician to shake their hand, the authors say, ["this preference] reinforces the importance of being sensitive to non-verbal cues that might indicate whether patients are open to this behaviour".
When respondents were asked was there anything else a doctor should do when meeting them for the first time, a quarter said they would like the doctor to smile. Being attentive, calm, friendly, personable and respectful were other characteristics patients would like to see in their doctors.
Greetings create a first impression that may extend far beyond what is conventionally seen as "bedside manner" the authors say. "Given the diversity of opinion regarding the use of names, coupled with national patient safety recommendations concerning patient identification, we suggest that physicians initially use patients' first and last names and introduce themselves using their own first and last names," they said.
How do you like to be greeted by your doctor - using your first name, last name or both? And how should doctors introduce themselves? E-mail healthsupplement@irish-times.ie